Over 117,000 public interest lawsuits on environment filed in 1.5 years

BEIJING, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — Chinese procuratorial organs have dealt with 117,000 public interest litigation cases related to environmental and resource protection from January 2023 to the end of June this year, according to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP).
Procuratorial agencies have consistently viewed public interest litigation as a significant legal tool for advancing ecological conservation and have effectively addressed various prominent issues in this field, said Xu Xiangchun, a senior prosecutor at the SPP, on Thursday.
The SPP released seven notable public interest litigation cases on Thursday, covering areas such as water environment management, solid-waste pollution prevention and control, wetland resource conservation, mine restoration and management, and the protection of nature reserves.
Xu said Chinese procuratorates will intensify their efforts on litigation concerning carbon-related matters, including greenhouse gas emissions, high-energy-consuming and high-carbon projects, and the disruption of natural resources’ carbon sequestration capacity. ■